Literary Terms Wiki
Welcome to the English 10C Literary Terms Wiki This wiki is for students in English 10C to track and define important literary terms used in the course. Please feel free to add, categorize, and define literary terms as they arise throughout the quarter. Also add or link to relevant examples. Terms Narrative *'Aphorism': A pointed or terse statement of a serious maxim, opinion/original thought, or general truthful, generally said in a memorable and witty manner. Aphorisms are rampant in the writing of Oscar Wilde; examples in "The Importance of Being Earnest" include Algernon's bold statement that "the truth is rarely pure and never simple." *Free indirect discourse: a direct discourse related by the narrator where the narrator takes on the mindset of a character and parrots his/her thoughts, sometimes making it difficult to tell the difference between the thoughts of the narrator and those of another character. A type of free indirect discourse is when the narrator's voice acquires the emotions and way of speaking of other characters, so that we see a deeper aspect of characters that we might not see otherwise. An example of this can be found in "Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole" on page 81, when Mrs. Seacole's narrative takes over the thoughts of Mrs. B. *'Epigrammatical': relating to an epigram, which is a short way of stating an aphorism,'or a statement of truth. "Aphoristic" and "epigrammatic" are words that can be used interchangeably to describe Oscar Wilde's writing style in The Importance of Being Earnest. In this case, Wilde deliberately creates paradoxical statements to poke fun at moral conventions. "A man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing" is such an example. *'Frame narrative: Related to metafiction. A frame narrative is a larger story that sets the stage for a character to tell a smaller story (or series of stories) or inset narrative: The man telling a story to his lover in "The Tale" by Joseph Conrad is an example of a frame narrative. *'Inset narrative': Related to metafiction. An inset narrative is a smaller story set up by a larger story or frame narrative: The story of the commanding officer in "The Tale" by Joseph Conrad is an example of an inset narrative. *'Stream of consciousness': a narrative style characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings; a form of interior monologue. Usually it is an unbroken flow of perceptions, memories, thoughts, and feelings in the character's mind. Jean Rhys uses stream of consciousness throughout most of Voyage in the Dark. Poetic Form and Figures of Speech *'Anapest': a metric foot consisting of two short, unstressed syllables followed by a long, stressed syllable. For example, Edward Lear's limericks are characterized by anapest. *'Anticlimax': a rhetorical device in which clauses are arranged such that the last line seems to be of the least importance. In "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen, anticlimax is used in the first stanza: "Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient...Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, But nothing happens." *'Anthropomorphism:' The ascription of human qualities to nonhuman objects/things. An example of this is seen in Wilfred Owen's "Arms and the Boy" (32) *'Apostrophe: '''a direct and explicit address either to an absent person or to an abstract or nonhuman entity. An example of this is in Tennyson's Lyric LIX (43). The speaker addresses "Sorrow." *'Alliteration': A literary device in which the first letter of each word in a phrase share the same letter. In "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen, alliteration is used in line 16: "Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence." *'Assonance': The repetition of vowel sounds to create an internal rhyme. In "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen, a repetition of "i" sounds is used: "in the merciless iced east winds that knife us..." *'Blason: a type of verse in which the poet praises something/someone through a list of its attributes (usually an itemization of another person's body parts). The poetic voice is usually male. The poetic voice often lists aspects of his beloved's appearence. It was a popular technique used in court poetry, and can be seen in the poems of "Whatever" and "Venus" in Duffy's Rapture. *'''Caesura: An audible pause in a line of poetry, which may place emphasis on particular words in the line for the sake of meaning or rhythm. In Tennyson's In Memoriam, there is a caesura in the first line of the prologue between the words 'God' and 'immortal', placing emphasis on 'God': "Strong Son of God, immortal Love." (p.5) *'Catalexis': The final syllable of a metrical foot has been removed to possibly add emphasis to the concluding word. *'Concatentation': The linking together of words in a consecutive chain or series, usually with the use of conjunctions. For example, in Charles Hamilton Sorley's "To Germany," he repeats the word "and" to concatenate the phrases of the sonnet. Sorley's repetition of this conjunction in the following excerpt joins these lines together in a way that sounds childish and immature: "And we, the tapering paths of our own mind,/ And in each others' dearest ways we stand,/ And hiss and hate. And the blind fight the blind." (lines 6-8). *'Consonance:' The repetition of two or more consonants in short succession. Alliteration is a type of consonance where the repeated consonant sounds are at the beginning of the words. An example of consonance is in Carol Ann Duffy's "Rapture" in lines 8-9 with "loss" and "bliss": "...alter the rhyme / we make with loss to assonance with bliss." *'Elegy': an emotive lamentation or mourning for the dead *'Ellipsis' when three periods are used in a row (...) to indicate an omission in a work. In "Exposure" by Wildred Owen, ellipsis is used extensively, for example, in line 11: "The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow..." * Endstopped: When a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) is equal to the length of the line. The line is a clause in itself. It's the opposite of enjambment. *'Enjambment': When a line or stanza continues on to the next without punctuation. *'Envelope Rhyme': A rhyme that follows a symmetrical, abba pattern. The envelope rhyme is used extensively in "In Memoriam." *'Dactyl': From the Greek for finger, of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. *'Iamb': Metrical foot consisting of two syllables — an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. *'Intertextuality': The ways in which a text affiliates or alludes itself to similar writing. Usually there are open or covert citations or allusions to other works. *'Limerick' : a humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear. James Joyce in "Travesties" speaks in Limericks. *'Pararhyme': When two words do not rhyme perfectly. A pararhyme is a half-rhyme, and an example of pararhymes can be found in Wilfred Owen's "Arms and the Boy" on page 32 of "The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry," with half-rhymes such as "flash" and "flesh," and "apple" and "supple." *'Parataxis:' Where you get a striking juxtaposition between two components of a sentence or two sentence units that don't necessarily have any connection to one another. The comparison between "lovely lads" and "dead and rotten" (p.1) in "On the Idle Hill of Summer" by A.E. Housman is an example of parataxis. In this case, "lovely" and "dead and rotten" are starkly contrasted, perhaps to call attention to an underlying sentiment in the poem. *'Pathetic Fallacy': A form of personification: when human emotions are attributed to animals, nature, or inanimate objects. An example of this is in Wilfred Owen's "Arms and the Boy" on page 32 of "The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry" when the bayonet-blade is described as "keen with hunger of blood." *'Polysyndeton:' The unnecessary use of several conjunctions in close succession. The use of polysyndeton can remind one of a childish or juvenile way of speaking. *'Pyrrhic': A metrical foot in poetry that has two unaccented, short syllables. *'Repetition': The strategy of repeating words, sounds, phrases, lines, meter, etc. to convey unity in a work. The stanzas referencing Christmas in Tennyson's "In Memoriam" demonstrate repetition. (p. 24, 53 and 79) *'Spondee': Two stressed syllables in a metric foot. *'Syllogism': An argument, that has three parts (for example it may follow an If/But/Therefore format). An example of this that we looked at in lecture was in Tennyson's In Memoriam, ''specifically Lyric LXI on page 44. "If, in thy second state sublime," (1)... "And if thou cast thine eyes below" (5)..."Yet turn thee to the doubtful shore," (9)... *'Understatement': a figure of speech that intentionally describes something in a diminished way by represending much less in magnitude or importance than it really is. The effect of this may be to call more attention to the statement itself. On page 21 of "The Wonderful Adventures..." author Mary Seacole refers to "the poor mortals whom you once held enslaved." This is an understatement because it deliberately mentions something very serious in a casual tone. The use of "you" helps to directly target the British readership, perhaps with the intention of reminding her audience of the injustices caused by slavery. *'Trochee': a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable Genre *Domestic fiction: a genre that usually deals with short stories about domestic affairs and sentimentalism from a humanistic point of view, specially popular during the 1850s and 1860s. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is an example of a work of domestic fiction. *'Farce': Works that have an artificial plot, implausible coincidences, rapid entrances and exits, stereotypical characters, and are all around very contrived. Oscar Wilde draws on all of these conventions in "The Importance of Being Earnest" in order to lampoon farce itself. *'Lyric poetry': A short, concise type of poetry that has its origins in song. It's name originates from the fact that the songs were accompanied by the lyre. Descends from the work of Sappho, who sang songs of passion and desire. The poems from Carol Ann Duffy's "Rapture" are in the lyric genre. *'Metafiction': Fiction written about fiction. This often takes the form of a story or '''inset narrative' being told within another story, or frame narrative The function of this may be to question the differences between reality and make-believe in the storytelling process. "The Tale" by Joseph Conrad is an example of metafiction. *'Metapoetry': Poetry about poetry; writer is often self-conscious of how and what is being conveyed in poetic form *'Pastiche': An artistic work that imitates or combines another work minus the critical eye of satire. It is a blank parody that respects the original. Tom Stoppard's "Travesties" is an example. *'Short Fiction:' It concerns a particular episode rather than a sequence of events that belong to an overarching plot. It concentrates on the urgency of the present moment rather than the anticipation of events to come. *'Society comedy': a comedy intended for an elite audience of society. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is an example of a Society comedy. New Category *'Irony': The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. Dramatic irony: an effect produced when the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story does. Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" uses dramatic irony in that the audience knows the true identities of Algernon and Jack when the girls they are trying to impress (Gwendolen and Cecily) do not. *'Satire': Literary art of diminishing or attacking someone or something by making it ridiculous or evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, indignation, etc.. example: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. *'Victorian Era': this era is said to expand through Queen Victoria's reign in England (1837-1901). A period noted for its artistic styles, literary schools, as well as the flourishing of social, political and religious movements. The Victorian era was a time of prosperity, imperial expansion and political reform. The construction of society's social classes were newly forming, and formenting. This period marks also the poor conditions of the working class. This era is a time of scientific progress (Darwin's Theory of Evolution), the Great Exhibition of 1851, which marks the technical and industrial advances of the time. This period is an era of literary achivement, with authors such as Oscar Wilde, George Elliot, Ruyard Kipling, Lewis Caroll, Tennyson, Browning, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Emily and Charlotte Bronte and Sir Walter Scott. Historical/Contextual Terms *'Jingoism': Blatant and overzealous patriotism, often advocating the use of violence and excessive force against other nations. This also may include feelings of national superiority and bias/racism. During World War I, many authors, such as Edward Thomas, grappled with the Jingoist notions that were popular in many countries at the time. In Thomas' poetry, specifically, he attempts to find a balance between loving one's nation and hating one's foe without portraying himself as a Jingoist. *'Aesthete: '''A person who espouses the idea that beauty is the highest goal in all aspects of life. With regard to art the aesthete believes in "art for art's sake," which means that art should have no moral or ethical aims beyond depicting what is beautiful. Oscar Wilde carefully cultivated an image of himself as an aesthete of the highest degree, and his characters Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, from ''The Importance of Being Earnest, could be described as aesthetes as well. *'Dadaism': An aesthetic and literary movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland during World War I, characterized by a rejection of artistic ideologies in favor of "art for art's sake." For example, the character Tristan Tzara, in Tom Stoppard's "Travesties", prescribes to Dadaism. *'Dandy:' Men known for their cut of clothes and for striking poses. They were "leaders of style." Jack and Algernon from The Importance of Being Earnest were stylish dandies. *Nescience: Absence or lack of knowledge, ignorance; a form or instance of ignorance. Professor Bristow mentioned this term when discussing Conrad's "The Tale." *'Trench warfare': A new type of militaristic combat introduced in World War One that consisted of poorly constructed trenches where soldiers took shelter during the war. These trenches caused many deaths because of how unsanitary they were, the subsequent amounts of rats, and the typhoid and disease that were spread around in this close, overcrowded and boggy environment. *'Amazon:' A woman exhibiting masculine characteristics, referring to a race of warrior women. This term was used to describe the spinsters of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford". Links CCLE Class Website Category:Browse